China-Africa forest governance strengthened with Cameroon event

An innovative multi-stakeholder event discussing Chinese trade and investment impacting Africa's forests will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon from 22-25 June.

The four-day dialogue meeting marks the second event of the China-Africa Forest Governance Learning Platform, one of the first multi-stakeholder dialogues in Africa to bring together Chinese, African and international stakeholders on these issues.

The first two days of the event will be held in Yaoundé, followed by a field visit to forest areas and to Kribi, to learn about the development of Cameroon's new deep-sea port and surrounding infrastructure, which was built with Chinese investment.

This event will bring together diverse attendees from government, civil society, and research institutes from China, Africa and the international community in dialogue on this fast-changing issue, based on up-to-date research generated by IIED, partners and others, as well as capacity-building initiatives and policy engagement activities conducted over the last few years.

China's imports of African timber and investments in land use in forest areas are both increasing, and China is now the top importer of timber from several African nations.

At the platform's first event in Beijing in March 2013, the Chinese government presented guidelines to help Chinese companies with their social and environmental conduct overseas and enhance the sustainability of the country's overseas forest operations.

The first meeting contributed to immediate positive outcomes – for example, two months later Mozambican delegates met with 50 Chinese timber companies, using the guidelines as a starting point for constructive dialogue.

James Mayers, head of IIED's natural resources group and facilitator of FGLG, said: "By exploring sensitive issues such as illegal and unsustainable logging, the China-Africa Forest Governance Learning Platform has already created trust and political will to confront these challenges.

"At the second event of platform we will build on this and identify opportunities for collaboration among the Chinese and African stakeholders, with tangible plans for research and action to improve forest governance issues in Africa."

Journalists are welcome to attend the meeting, please contact the organisers for more information.

Notes to editors

About the China-Africa Forest Governance Project: Between 2014 and 2017, IIED will work in China and four African countries: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique and Uganda. They are countries in which the scale of Chinese investment and trade in forest-related sectors is significant and, in the case of Cameroon and DRC, where there is ongoing timber legality work supported by the European Commission.

IIED's main partners in China include Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information at the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) and Global Environmental Institute (GEI).

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent, non-profit research institute. Set up in 1971 and based in London, IIED provides expertise and leadership in researching and achieving sustainable development (see: www.iied.org).